The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

THE MYSTICAL HYMNS
XXIX.
TO PROSERPINE.
A HYMN,
DAUGHTER of Jove, Persephone divine,
Come, blessed queen, and to these rites incline :
Only-begotten 53, Pluto's honour'd wife,
0 venerable Goddess, source of life :
'Tis thine in earth's profundities to dwell,
Fast by the wide and dismal gates of hell.
Jove's holy offspring, of a beauteous mien,
Avenging Goddess, subterranean queen.
The Furies' source, fair-hair'd, whose frame proceeds
From Jove's ineffable and secret seeds.
Mother of Bacchus, sonorous, divine,
And many-form'd, the parent of the vine.
Associate of the Seasons, essence bright,
All-ruling virgin, bearing heav'nly light.
With fruits abounding, of a bounteous mind,
Horn'd, and alone desir'd by those of mortal kind.
0 vernal queen, whom grassy plains delight,
Sweet to the smell, and pleasing to the sight :
53 Proclus, in Tim. lib. 2, p. 139, says, "that the theologist
[Orpheus] is accustomed to call Proserpine only-hegotten."
Icai yap o B~oXoyos rqv Kopqv ,uovvoyevelav ELWOE
?rpocayopevetv. See the additional notes.